Saturday, November 23, 2013

The 75 Things Every Man Should Do (According to Esquire)

Okay, I don't put a lot of validity in lists like this one, but I scored myself anyway - 31 out of 75. Most of the ones I have not done I have no plan of every doing. Well, maybe a couple.

How many have you done? How many are now on your bucket list

The 75 Things Every Man Should Do

All the escapism a man might resolve to experience while living on this planet. And then some.

By Tom Chiarella

daily planner with writing on it

At least once in his life, a man should...


There is no checklist. Nothing on this list is that automatic. Every element here is a matter of the choices you make, the chances you take, the courage you are willing to show. You can trick yourself into thinking bungee jumping somehow satisfies those criteria, but willfully falling off a crane in a mall parking lot is more or less a rite of passage by now, isn't it? Maybe you call that a big moment. The trick is choosing to experience them all that way.


No. 1: Play rugby.
No. 2: Repair an appliance.
No. 3: Fly the red-eye from Vegas.
No. 4: Fly a Cessna.
No. 5: Make a list of seventy-five things you want to do before you die. It's hard.
No. 6: Fast for three days. Drink water.
No. 7: Drive the Great Ocean Road in southern Australia. Or the Pacific Coast Highway.
No. 8: Make a perfect omelet.
No. 9: Drive by yourself from coast to coast.
No. 10: Recognize the accomplishments of others.
No. 11: Do a flip off a diving board. Nail it.
No. 12: Leave yourself a letter in a library book. Look for it twenty years later.
No. 13: Watch a bad movie so often that when you see it by accident...
No. 14: Toboggan, aggressively.
No. 15: Scuba dive.
No. 16: Drink mescal in Mexico.
No. 17: Cultivate a reputation.
No. 18: Learn three to four chords on the guitar, until you can play one song.
No. 19: Live in a hotel suite for a week.
No. 20: Milk a cow. Drink that.
No. 21: Build a fence.
No. 22: Carry a totem in your pocket.
No. 23: Help someone dig out.
No. 24: Pick an animal. Something cool like a wolverine. Go see it in the wild.
No. 25: Shoplift.
No. 26: Throw a real party.
No. 27: Live outside the homeland.
No. 28: Start something that scares you.
No. 29: Choose a word or a phrase and actively work to never use it again.
No. 30: Eat mussels in Bruges.
No. 31: Break a sheet of plate glass with a ball-peen hammer.
No. 32: Cook the same thing (over and over) until you are known for it.
No. 33: Overspend.
No. 34: Have a threesome.
No. 35: Quit something you love.
No. 36: Take care of someone else's three-year-old for a day.
No. 37: Get very good at a sport that isn't a sport.
No. 38: Listen to war stories.
No. 39: Tell war stories.
No. 40: Write someone else's life story without mentioning yourself.
No. 41: Sing in public.
No. 42: Sell everything you don't need. Once.
No. 43: Play golf at Carnoustie.
No. 44: Play chess until you beat someone you shouldn't, then quit forever.
No. 45: Give up your seat.
No. 46: Kill, dress, cook, and eat wild game.
No. 47: Attend the funeral of someone you didn't know that well.
No. 48: Take a vow. Keep it.
No. 49: Eat a six-course meal that you prepared.
No. 50: Live at a high altitude.
No. 51: Spend some time working for tips.
No. 52: Overeat for a week.
No. 53: Make a movie, even a short one.
No. 54: Give a panhandler all of your money.
No. 55: Make beer, wine, or moonshine.
No. 56: Read Lolita.
No. 57: Have sex in a body of water.
No. 58: Ride a horse.
No. 59: Eat congee. Eat haggis. Eat tongue. Eat kidneys. Eat brain. Eat testicles.
No. 60: Walk twenty miles. Bring water.
No. 61-63: Go to the desert. Take long-lasting drugs. Drink water.
No. 64: Watch television for twenty-four hours uninterrupted.
No. 65: Save something from the dump.
No. 66: Climb something you are afraid of.
No. 67: Get a manicure.
No. 68: Eat a two-course meal that you grew.
No. 69: Get a deep-tissue massage.
No. 70: Sleep outside for a week.
No. 71: Put a hundred bucks on a long shot. To win.
No. 72: Go to Paris. Tell no one where you are. Stay there for two weeks.
No. 73: Raise a dog.
No. 74: Peg the speedometer.
No. 75: Bungee jump.

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